The Over Under Chronicles
by demifics
Summary: Gregor has fulfilled his role in the prophecies and the Warrior is dead. Now what? (A collection of short fanfictions and drabbles about events that take place after Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins.)


**Characters belong to Suzanne Collins**

**Angelina's crazy scene is taken from Macbeth by William Shakespeare**

* * *

They didn't move to Virginia.

Gregor's mother wanted them to, but she couldn't convince them all.

Lizzy couldn't bare to leave Ripred, Boots wanted to visit the Underland daily, and Gregor...well…

His grandmother was out of the hospital, but now she was in a nursing home. No one wanted to leave her in New York by herself.

Then, Grace tried to get them to (at least) move into a bigger apartment. Now that Gregor's dad could work again, they were making more money, and they still had some left from the Underland. The bills were paid, and they were doing pretty good. She thought that moving into a larger apartment would be nice after spending so much time squished into a few rooms.

Once again, she failed at convincing everyone.

Lizzy was worried that if they switched apartments, the only entrance to the Underworld that they would be able to find was the one in Central Park, and that one couldn't be used often. Gregor agreed. Luckily, with their grandmother out of the apartment, there was more room. Not much, especially with Boots growing up, but there was enough.

There was one thing that everyone did agree on.

Gregor had to be homeschooled.

He now had to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts whenever he was out of the apartment. At first, his few scars weren't too bad, and they were starting to vanish with the help of Underland medicine. But now, he had so many scars that they were never all going to disappear. The medicine wasn't working fast enough, and the scars seemed to stop fading. He couldn't do anything about his arm covered in faint white lines, or the ragged scars covering his legs. The scars were there to stay, a part of him. A part no one could see.

It was one thing to wear long sleeves and pants during winter. For every spring and summer of every year, that was a bit extreme. People would ask questions if they saw them or not, and it would be extremely uncomfortable for him either way.

When he could, Gregor's dad helped him at home, but he got a job at a science teacher. So most of Gregor's days were spent at home, "learning".

Most days he spent thinking about the Underland. He wanted to know if things were better. He wanted to know how Howard and Hazard were. He wanted to know if the rats and humans were getting along. He wanted to know how Luxa was doing as queen. He wanted to know if Luxa was doing okay. He wanted to know if Luxa, Hazard, and Howard were still all living at the palace. He wanted to know if Luxa was worried about him. He wanted to know if Luxa…well, you get the point.

A year passed. Two years. Three. Four.

Larry and Angelina were still friends with Gregor. They didn't understand why he was suddenly homeschooled, and it made even less sense why he wore pants and long sleeves all year, but they still hung out with him. One of the only things they did know was that being homeschooled meant that Gregor wasn't going to meet new people, so they did their best to keep him from being totally antisocial. They took him out to movies, brought (and invited) him to parties, and tried to set him up with countless girls. Gregor didn't get one girl's phone number. He never tried.

Gregor knew you weren't supposed to fall in love at twelve years old. It wasn't normal. Most of the kids he had gone to school with dated, but he doubted it was the way he felt about Luxa. When Gregor thought about Luxa, he got this sort of ache in his chest and he got butterflies in his stomach. Whenever he thought about her, he found that he had a hard time breathing, and if he was just sitting doing nothing, he always found himself thinking of her.

He wanted to visit. He wanted to visit and see his friends and Luxa and Regalia and everything, but his mom stopped him every time.

'Too dangerous', 'You'll get swept up in another prophecy', 'I can't lose you'.

So he didn't.

Howard kept them informed. He left letters and messages in the laundry room, weekly, monthly, sometimes daily. He wrote about big things that were happening, like if peace was being kept or not, and little things, like what they had fallen down and been placed in the museum. Sometimes he mentioned things, very big things in Gregor's opinion, briefly to try and make them seem less important or interesting or something. Like the fact that he and Nike bonded. Gregor could figure out why that was mentioned so offhandedly well enough, but others just confused him.

* * *

Gregor, Larry, and Angelina lounged on Gregor's couch, reading lines. They would've gone to someone else's house, somewhere a little bigger, where a five year old wasn't running around screeching, but Gregor's apartment was closest to the school.

Lizzie burst into the apartment in the middle of Angelina's crazy scene.

"Out, damn'd spot! out, I say! One–two– why, then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is , my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow'r to accom–"

Lizzie stood in the doorway, frozen. She started gasping.

Gregor stood up and walked over to her. "What's wrong?"

"I– I turned– the sheets– the white sheets– pink– they're pink!"

She shoved something into his hand and he saw her eye twinkle and knew she was okay.

"I'll take care of it," he promised, closing his hand in a fist. "Get a bag and sit with Larry and Ang, okay?"

She nodded and took a few deep breaths.

Angelina stood up and rubbed Lizzie's shoulder. "Sweetie, you can just use bleach," she told her.

Gregor stood outside his apartment door and read the message.

_"G– L will be at AV at 4. –H"_

Gregor looked down at his watch. 3:54. No wonder Lizzie had ran in.

He sprinted down to the laundry room and opened the air vent. Seconds later, Luxa's eyes met his.

They just stared at each other for a minute.

Four years. It had been four years.

"Hi."

She smiled. "Hello."

"How long do you have?"

She shrugged. "Ten minutes, at least. Do not tell the council."

"Couldn't if I wanted to."

They sat in silence for another minute. There were too many things to say and not enough time to say it all.

"My sixteenth birthday approaches," Luxa blurted out.

"Really? Already?"

She nodded. "Two weeks time."

He noticed the nervous look in her eyes. "Hey, you'll be fine. Everyone loves you."

"But–"

"There really are not buts involved with this."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course there are." Gregor opened his mouth to protest, but she raised a hand to silence him. "But you are right. I just wish you were able to attend."

"Yeah, me too. I might be able to convince my mom, since it's such a big day, you know?"

Luxa's face light up. "Do you think you could?"

He nodded. "Could Boots and Lizzie come too? Because they've missed everyone too."

"You and your family are always welcome."

Gregor heard someone coming to the laundry room. He leaned into the air duct and kissed Luxa quickly. "Someone's coming," he whispered.

She nodded and smiled sadly, disappearing from view as he shut the air vent.

He stood up and dusted off his clothes, grabbed the white sheets from the dryer and went back up to the apartment.

"What took you so long?" Larry asked.

"Wrong sheets," Gregor said, dumping them on the couch next to Angelina. "Almost bleached someone else's pink sheets."


End file.
